The Mossad's Hunt For The Hangman Of Riga | Nazi Hunters | Timeline

my name's dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video [Music] it was a sadistic murderer he was called the hangman of riga my god this is a nazi criminal what is it doing here this is something that the state of israel could not tolerate the plan is like the best spy novel gather all possible intelligence about him befriend him and kill him [Music] [Music] summer 1964 brazil latvian nazi herbert zuckers is living quietly in sao paulo for the man known as the hangman of riga it is a peaceful life but all that is about to change was photographed in brazil by someone from the jewish population they have heard of him and they know who he is zuckers was involved in some of the most vile crimes the second world war together with the latvian nazis killed thousands of innocent people children and elder people and women and there's a lot of testimony which i've read in archives from after the war in which zuckers zuckers the name keeps coming up the photos of zuckers travel halfway around the world to a special nazi hunting unit within israel's secret service they kick off one of the most daring missions in the mossad's history september 1st 1964 mossad agent is called to a meeting operational apartment in paris his commander tells him we have a very special mission for you we want to send you to south america to find for us a nazi called tsukus he tells him your name from today onward is anton quinzler he told me that zucco's was living in brazil tsukus was an officer in the latvian air force before the war mid 1941 hitler invades latvia then zuka's joined up with a gang of murderers and cut throats they went around following nazi orders to go and commit atrocities on the jews in riga capital of latvia they saw him personally snatching babies from the arms of the mothers and killing them they burned the synagogue with 300 people in it and didn't let anybody run out he told me that sucrose was responsible for the extermination of 30 000 latvian jews thinking of my parents who both died in the holocaust i agreed immediately anton kunsler was the perfect choice for this kind of operation first of all because of his background kunsler grew up in germany when the nazis came to power german was his mother tongue he was part of the team that kidnapped eichmann four years earlier unlike a desk murderer such as adolf heikman zuckers literally had blood on his hands and they think what are we going to do are we going to do another item are we gonna kidnap him conduct a trial or are we gonna do something quite different they decided this time not to kidnap him and not to put him on trial but to execute him and have the public reaction to it the plan kunzul will befriend zookers and lure him out of brazil assassinating him on brazilian soil is risky there could be retaliation against the large jewish population if kunsan is caught he could be executed [Music] we call them the disease from the beginning we were confident the mission will succeed they wanted to make nazis all over the world fear of their life despite the danger the mossad agent has one condition i asked to go only alone no squat to watch about me if it was discovered that somebody was guarding me it might be my end but to work alone he needs a cover story i became an austrian businessman anton quinsley who was a former nazi who intended to develop tourism to brazil i started going a moustache i went to taylor and ordered a summer black suit at the alcoholist i faked the result of my examination so that i could get prescription glasses if my glasses would have been faked circles might have suspicions kenzel looks like your classic anonymous western european guy he's sort of balding he's got a moustache he's got glasses he's a little bit tubby if you walk past him in the street you wouldn't remember him and he's the perfect spy my bald head at my belly as a means which make me trust it to everybody i mean he gets a new passport and then he goes around europe creating this completely new identity he printed business cards he ordered special and expensive stationery he relied on that absence of global communication to get every piece of paperwork he needed everything is like something out of a real vintage thriller armed with a new identity the mossad spy begins the next phase of his assignment the hunt for the hangman of riga i booked a ticket to rio de janeiro i intended first to stop with the rio de janeiro to know what brazil is like and then to advance to sao paulo close to the objective he toured around couple of days to establish his cover story tried to build up some contact to the local tourist industry i told them that they were interested investments and they gave me recommendations to san paolo i got the personal cards names and the addresses i left science in every corner to show my identity when anton kinsler was given the mission of finding tsukus he really felt that he is doing a holy mission his mother was killed in auschwitz his father died in concentration camp of the rezenstadt i feel a certain death to my parents but the mission isn't just about revenge many european countries are about to formally declare that the time for prosecuting nazi war crimes is over israel will never accept this even though 20 years have passed some people don't forget after a week in rio kunzul moves to sao paulo and his target herbert sukers i went to the place where sukkos was i saw him at the time was renting boats and also he was running a plane service he flew uh little seaplanes and he would give people tours of sao paulo tzukus is living in brazil over the last 20 years like many high-ranking nazis after the war zookers escaped to brazil the brazilian government is fanatically anti-communist and turns a blind eye kunzel knows if he is caught they will be far less sympathetic to an israeli spy kunsler understood that this is something never done before in the mossad because he was sent to brazil without a backup team and he was working solo by himself in order to approach zukos gain his confidence and eventually bring his death he seemed very strong quite physically fit i would have to take this into account [Music] i decided to return when i was sure i was ready [Music] [Music] 48 hours after sighting his target agent kunzel returns to the marina this time to meet with herbert sugars decided to hire him for sightseeing flight over sao paulo sukkos is a very good pilot in the 30s it was a national hero in latvia because he uh built an airplane flew from riga to gambia in west africa non-stop flight zukus was indeed the latvian lindbergh the most famous man of daring do in latvia and that part of the world at the time after the flight the latvian nazi invites the israeli spy for a drink he took us to his captain's cabin i saw the gunner of the sport i got tents because for circles there was no problem to murder anton quinzler started telling zuko that he's a businessman showing him he has money his connections zuckers sees kunzel's obviously a man seemingly of great wealth the zuckers on the other hand has made very very little money running his flying boat hire pleasure flight business but he lived extremely modestly and he had a financially a very very tough time i told him that i had come to invest capital in south america and to tourist business you are connected to it that would interest me to talk to you and that's his way of tugging at zuka's greed zuckers admits quite quickly to kunzl that he has this incredibly dark past he said you know they say i am a war criminal his remark that i'm a nazi criminal could be a way of testing to see who is the guy in front of him and uh kunsler should no no he didn't react you know okay so people say you are a nazi criminal i mean okay he asked kinsler what were you doing during the war i knew he was a captain in this case i decided i was a little lower so i made myself a lighted hunt and i said i also was wounded on the eastern front and suku said really i opened my shirt why i had an operation in tel aviv hospital and i said i got wounded on the russian front he had onto the mole or something removed and of course he claimed this was some sort of wound that he had received and of course all this helped build up the story that he had indeed been a serving officer of the fatherland and zucco's started to believe it all he said you know why don't you come to see me during the week in my home i said i don't know when i shall come back council knows in order to get his man he doesn't want to like the suitor at a disco go in straight away and lay his intentions straight up so he plays the long game i wanted to let him boil in his oil not so quick quivapiano avolvalontano vasano who goes slow goes far and goes safe krinsler went back to the hotel and he sent a message back to headquarters in tel aviv it was in secret inc the message said the fish has swallowed the bait [Music] they left me in doubt and after week or so came back sukhos invites kinsler to have dinner with his family he lived in a house which looked like a fortress it's a fortified house with barbed wires around and dogs and the searchlights it was defined enough to show him look i'm well protected it's really going into the lion's lair no backup team no protection if the family is suspicious that he's maybe a mossad agent they can kill him throw away his body nobody will know about it i meet his wife my son [Music] tsukus shows him his medals from the world he showed him his collection of guns you know different calibers i thought it might be a warning he thought i like you but to be sure to know that i know how to protect myself zuckers wants to always make out that he's the big man and at the same time as kunzel's trying to subtly impress zuckers zuckers is not so subtle in the way he tries to impress kunzel he tries to make out i'd be a good business partner for you and he claims he has this plantation outside town [Music] he took me close to the jungle it's quite a long drive and obviously you know people will need a little rest break kunzel suddenly realizes because he's circumcised this could be a problem if zuckers sees this when they urinate on the side of the road kunsa was very cunning about it and he worked out that if zuckers actually had seen his penis and and inquired as to why it lacked a foreskin he was going to say ah well i caught gonorrhea in a military brothel on the russian front and one of the forms of treatment was to be circumcised [Music] [Music] at the plantation the stakes are suddenly raised zucker says hey i want to have a little shooting match little competition with you he had a sporting rifle with him i thought it might be my end have been more cunning than him could he have lured him up to the banana plantation to kill him so they set up a target zucker shoots first [Music] and he gets a very nice grouping and kunzel goes well it's the type of practice zuckers got from shooting jews running away from him on the streets of riga kunzel then is given the rifle and said do you still know how to shoot i said yes tsukus didn't know that anton was a real marksman i was the first in israel to volunteer for the british army kunsler made five or six beautiful shots he shoots within a three centimeter grouping it's like that classic moment between two men and one had got the better one than the other so you said you're all right zuckers admits the kunzler is the better shot it's a key moment than the hunt and it occurs to well i could just do the job now i should to of course hide this body mission accomplished nobody will know i decided not to execute it i was afraid i might be miscovered in brazil at the time there was still capital punishment imagine to yourself a jewish mossad agent being hanged because he was trying to execute a nazi zuckers suddenly accepts that kunzel probably is what he says he is he started calling her anton in order to say i understand you are the boss psychologically it strengthened sukuru's confidence over the following weeks the israeli spy gets closer to the marked man it takes him for a round of night life you know glamour he notices zuckers is very in control he nurses his drinks and he's very nervous about those around him and at one point he even suspects on the waiters i think of being jewish and and thinks that maybe this guy is following him he was very very wary of anybody trying to approach him because he he knew of course that ahman was kidnapped by the mossad and at the time there were stories that the mussar is hunting nazis all over the world zuckers is sportline paranoid anton kunsler continued all the time slowly to implant the seeds of trust in tsuku's mind a sentence here sentence there about his financial abilities and his companies the moment i am in action i am very cool i was confident sukkos trusted me he keeps feeding zucker's little tidbits that we maybe will set up some company here to do this maybe you could get involved herbert me old friend but kunzel can tell that there is that suspicion there so he's very careful not to promise him too much and suku's is getting grittier and grittier the ka-ching sound is going in his head he's thinking there's some cash here maybe this mr kunsler is his way out of lower income class to the world that tsukus believes he should belong to like his heydays in the second world war on the first day of the occupation i was 16 years old and there was a knock at the door and there was herbert circus and they said you're a jew you get outside it doesn't matter what you were that's the last time you saw her dad and that was the beginning of the end tsukus came in and threw us out of my apartment he took all our belongings they built a ghetto in the outskirts of town bob wired it called the riga ghetto where they shoved us into the ghetto and i kissed my mom goodbye for the last time and next morning they were gone the jews were driven out of the ghetto at riga by zuckers and his men to the forest where tens of thousands of people were murdered three people survived and luckily we have the testimony of some of those he wouldn't just shoot adults he would shoot children in front of their parents and there are testimonies which has him shooting a baby in front of its mother within four months i lost my mother and father my entire family was wrapped up they were killed in the mass graves you could hear screaming and hollering the children were hollering a woman was crying we could actually hear the guns later on sucrose is occupied my apartment and at night time he would have me come upstairs to my own apartment and play the piano while he was entertaining his girlfriends [Music] i would hear sucrose laughing and drinking and having fun and there i am sitting and playing it was horrible even though i survived is there something i can never get over [Music] the israeli spy spends more and more time with the latvian nazi they scout for new investments they plan future businesses [Music] kunzel realizes after many more meetings with zuckers that things are going extremely well and he realizes that things are now getting into place in order to actually perform the final part of the mission i.e the execution [Music] three weeks after their first meeting kunzul tells zuckers he has to return to europe to take care of business i said i shall send you telegram and i left for europe i left him hoping he would be again a rich and important person but when anton kunzel returns to south america he will not be alone [Music] in europe anton kunzl plans the next phase of his operation against nazi herbert zuckers kunzel goes back to paris where he discusses with his fellow agents what's the best place to kill him we decided that if we shall execute him it would not be in brazil but in uruguay there's a big big jewish community in brazil and if this is seen as jews killing a nazi then there's going to be a backlash against the jewish population uruguay was more democratic than brazil at the time a very small jewish minority it wouldn't cause such a repercussion and also important no capital punishment montevideo capital of uruguay they decide that's the best place they decide to lure him into an isolated place someone from the team would read to him charge that he was personally responsible for the murder of 30 000 jews of riga and execute him on the spot he's a very very big solid guy and you see pictures of him and he's got four arms the size of like you know boxers he's a fierce proposition they were expecting to have some kind of a fight a hit team is built up for mossad people they are given course in man-to-man combat they spend a lot of time practicing their karate moves and how to do their martial arts the head squad is primed the balding spy sends the hangman of riga a letter urging him to come to montevideo as an incentive he includes a check for plane tickets and expenses console decides i can say that we have a business opportunity we want to explore there we're a big business we can do this zuckers is reluctant because he's very worried about leaving the country he feels threatened he feels unsafe because he won't have the protection of his friends and family around he was always suspicious but for the impoverished nazi the money proves irresistible success had no passports so he had to file for a brazilian passport and kinsler helps him with background letters and documents saying that he's employing him as his associate a week later zuker sends a telegram to kunzl confirming he'll meet him in montevideo the trap is set the team of mossad agents fly out and they fly into different places at different times but they all meet in montevideo in order to plan the next part of this mission [Music] and it was very hard for the agents to find the property they needed in which they could kill him but eventually they found up this little suburban area part of montevideo what seemed like the perfect property it was a one-story house the neighboring property there were builders working merging people can tend to make quality noise and clearly having a load of builders next door was not going to be helpful but time was tight so they thought it'll just have to do [Music] all that's missing is the target to ensure supers doesn't back out kunzul decides to meet him in sao paulo and travel with him to montevideo and it's tao paolo he steps off the plane and there's zuckers ready to greet him zuckers has a super 8 camera and he's filming him when i stepped down from the plane he started in front of me and took my picture i tried to cover my face and consular court is absolutely appalled by this because like any good spy he doesn't want to be photographed he then says to uh zuckers hello herbert have you uh got oil papers to go to uruguay zuckers goes no i haven't got them yet haven't sort of got around to it i sharply spoke to him and said if you want business with me never do this again never send me a telegram you're ready and you're not ready kunzel decides i need to behave like this man's boss and it's a great bit of bluff because it works completely i went on i say you send me a telegram to montevideo to my hotel in the meantime that he prepared wizards zuckers eventually gets the paperwork sorted out circles get his passport and he can fly to montevideo to meet his good business associate mr anton quinsel before he leaves zukers does something odd he gives his wife the super 8 film he took of kunzl at the airport was it because he just wanted you know to have some footage of a short balding moustached man no zuckers had this cunning he was always suspicious of console tsukus told his wife if anything happens to me this is a man who is responsible five months after the mossad mission was launched the latvian nazi sends word he's flying to montevideo he meets the israeli assassin at his hotel the check-in into the very expensive hotel which is also part of the plan you know to calm down sukurus to show him that everything is going according to plan from the beginning two course had a dual feeling towards kunsler on one hand you know we saw it as a chansey encounter with an austrian ex-officer in the wehrmacht who is a businessman and he's promising promising promising all kind of good things for the future on the other hand sucrose was a very clever person he was alert all the time he knew that after the war he will have to pay for his crimes he knew that he is not innocent [Music] neil was very suspicious [Music] zuckers is still greedy for money and even though he's got suspicions about kenzel he's going to go along with it because he's desperate for the cash so he says to zuckers look i really need your advice to help me find a new sort of business premises of satellite office so uh can you help me come and have a look around a few like potential buildings we could use as offices so the two men do a lot of driving around in a vw beetle looking at various premises [Applause] it's a way of trying to make zuckers just feel a bit more relaxed after going around montevideo for a while anton kunzler tells zukos i want to show you another place this is his last ride to the villa where they're going to execute him anton kunzler needed to signal the team that everything is going according to plan i left the car without enough petrol i stopped at a certain petrol station another member of the team is waiting on the other side of the road he signaled him that everything is okay the lookout alerts the hit squad to meet at the house [Music] they took off their clothes because they were expecting to have some kind of a fight they knew it would not pass without violent reaction from tsukus things could be very messy and very bloody [Music] [Music] kunsler walks first you know to show that he's the boss if i open the door and say go in he will not if i go in he will come after me and he's thinking i can't hear him behind me is he going to follow me is he suspicious is this the moment where suddenly zuckers runs up to me and just hits me in the back of the head and that's me gone [Music] and eventually his footsteps and zuckers is walking up behind him and he thinks it's gonna happen [Music] she opens the door walks in and suddenly the agents jump on it zuckers was fighting for his life he managed to rush through the door and the most horrendous fight takes place one jumped him and immediately threw him down he fought like a lion all these young mossad agents were all being you know held off by zuckers sukkos reached to his own gun a hammer is produced zuka's pretty much crumples but he's not dead he started shouting that's me let me speak two shots of fire into his head and that was the end of herbert zuckers agents in underpants covered in blood looking down at the hangman eureka he was gone the plan to incapacitate zuckers and read aloud the judgment against him was abandoned in the struggle they had prepared in advance a huge trunk [Music] he was put in the box they attach a note to his large stained body saying considering the gravity of the crimes of which helmet sucrose is accused notably his personal responsibility in the murder of thirty thousand men women and children and considering the terrible cruelty shown by herbert sucruz he's carried out his crimes we condemn the setsukos to death it was executed on 23 february 1965 by those who will never forget he dressed up and each one went his own way according to plan and then they all make their way back to paris the job is done back in paris the mossad team needs to get word out that herbert sucres has been executed [Music] we contacted paper agencies in uruguay to tell them that the body of this gruesome murderer will be found in a house in montevideo they call the newspaper in paraguay the telephone call to the agency was received by a junior editor never paid any attention to it [Music] and the people in the mossad are waiting one day two days three days nothing happens [Music] no one believes that this has happened and in the meantime zuckers family are starting to get a little bit worried about what's happened to their loved one this is the first time herbert zucker's son has spoken on television for the first few days we thought everything was normal then after a few days that's when we began to worry so then somebody called up another agency an empty video and gave them full details and this time one of the editors decided this is serious enough and called the police [Music] twelve days after the execution montevideo police find the maggot written body in the trunk inside the house on cartagena street the policeman opened the trunk and there was zuccas body it had bloated it was an absolutely vile thing to look at a thumb print from the body matches the print on zuker's passport as intended the news travels like wildfire i was listening to the radio and heard they found a body in uruguay i caught this terrible feeling a wave of anti-semitism breaks out synagogues were burnt down in both uruguay and in sao paulo there were lots of random acts of low-level violence but there wasn't any sort of massive reprisal carried out it seems israel's message is heard loud and clear four days after the body is found the german government reacts they extend the deadline on prosecuting nazi war criminals but in montevideo police have a homicide to solve the family showed pictures of kunzel to the world media we gave them the picture that was taken at the airport it was all we had but it was too late interpol were called in to try and find out who this anton kunzel was but of course he retreated back to an anonymity of being a mosaic agent in some town in the middle of israel the case goes cold it would be 20 years before the mossad admits responsibility for assassinating herbert sugars i was very proud of the israelis for doing that even though it was horrible i thought he deserved it you must always remember we must never forget despite testimony from witnesses like sasha simenov herbert zucker's family denies he committed atrocities against latvian jews we have been waiting 60 years for some kind of proof against my father if the world can't show any documents that prove his guilt then declare him innocence my family has been suffering their entire life because of these lies to this day the man responsible for herbert zucker's death has never revealed his true identity anton kunzler came back to israel of course his moustache was shaved off and glasses thrown away he continued to work for many years in the mossad they got their man they did it efficiently morally is problematic but it is nevertheless brilliantly done so it was in many ways the perfect mission i am very satisfied it was never dull in a moment you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, nazi documentary, nazi justice, nuremberg trials, ww2 documentary, after the war, allied victory, nazi hunters, hangman of riga, butcher of riga, herbert cukurs, nazi assasinations, israeli spies, mossad, nazi germany

Id: OG7HBjv6zu0

Length: 41min 59sec (2519 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021